Its proximity to Chabad house, the Jewish prayer house, in Pune could have been a factor behind the blast. The bakery was only metres away from the Chabad house in Koregaon Park. By setting off a blast at the bakery, terrorists could have well sent a grim message to foreigners as well as Jews
The quantum of sentence would be pronounced on April 18.
The Maharashtra police has identified the culprits of the February 13 terror attack on the German Bakery in Pune, said Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil on Tuesday.
A court in Pune on Saturday framed charges against Himayat Baig, the main accused in German Bakery blast case, and others. Seventeen persons were killed and over 50 injured in the blast at the German Bakery, a popular eatery in Pune's posh Koregaon Park area, on February 13, 2010.
Vicky Nanjappa takes a look at the shortcomings of the German Bakery blast case until now, and the task that the National Investigating Agency has cut out for itself.
One of the suspects, who was nabbed from Kudalwadi area, is believed to have been associated with Indian Mujahideen leader Riyaz Bhatkal during his stay in Pune. The other suspect from Janwadi locality was reportedly associated with Shabbir Gangawali, a cleric linked with Indian Mujahideen.
Confessions by Indian Mujahideen operative Yasin Bhatkal negate the Maharashtra ATS theory that convict Mirza Himayat Baig played a role in the Pune attack. Vicky Nanjappa reports
In the backdrop of arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, alleged founder of Indian Mujahideen, condemned convict in German Bakery blast case, Himayat Baig has approached the Bombay high court seeking reinvestigation into his case by a neutral agency or a court-appointed Special Investigation Team.
Mumbai attack co-accused David Coleman Headley on Wednesday testified he had conducted a surveillance of the German Bakery in Pune and identified Chabad houses in Delhi, Pushkar and Pune as potential bombing targets.
Aditi Jindal from Chandigarh was undergoing treatment in the Inlaks and Budhrani hospital, sources added.
The intelligence alert that was received first was that terror outfits would target Chabhad House and Osho Ashram since there were many foreigners in these places and terror groups would be trying to get international attention. However, the plans were changed at the last minute, as they were not able to intercept these places. Based on the advisories and the alerts that were issued, the security in these two places was beefed up.
German Bakery, the eatery that came into focus after a bomb blast that killed 17 patrons and injured over 60 others in 2010, has been formally reopened at the posh Koregaon Park area here with the owners hoping to erase the terrible memory.
The landmark German Bakery, which was devastated in the February 13 terrorist bomb attack in Pune last year, will be reopened by the end of this month, the owner said on Wednesday.
Yaseen Bhatkal, a distant relative of Indian Mujhahideen founder Riyaz Bhatkal, has been named the mastermind of the Pune blast by Maharashtra's Anti-Terrorism Squad. A blast in German bakery, one of the city's most popular eateries, had left 17 people dead and many more injured on February 13. Yaseen hails from the coastal town of Bhatkal in Karnataka and has been involved in terror activities since 1998, say sources in the Intelligence Bureau.
Meanwhile, Inspector General (Law and Order) Rashmi Shukla informed media persons that it was very premature to say who was behind the terror attack.
None of the nine persons killed in the Pune blast is a foreigner and the three bodies identified so far are of Indians, Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai said in New Delhi on Sunday. Pillai said among the injured, four are Iranians, two Sudanese, one Taiwanese, one German and two Nepalese.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde on Thursday ruled out reinvestigation in 2010 Pune's German Bakery blast case, saying there was no need for it.
The Bombay high court on Thursday quashed the death penalty awarded to lone convict Himayat Baig in the 2010 German Bakery blast in Pune due to lack of evidence, but confirmed the life sentence imposed on him for possession of explosives.
An Al Qaeda document recovered by US Navy SEALs from the Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden describes the 2008 Mumbai terror attack by Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba terrorists as a "heroic Fidai" operation and the one at German Bakery in Pune as a "beautiful huge" bombing.
The appeal filed through advocate Nishant R Katneshwarkar raised 20 grounds while assailing the high court order.
Indrani Mukerjea, in pure white, sporting dancing pearl jhumkas, bobbed about the accused box, occasionally floating up front to whisper urgent suggestions to her lawyer Ranjeet Sangle as retired cop and prosecution witness Dinesh Kadam gave her a long look. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel returns to cover the Sheena Bora murder trial after 18 months.
Records stretching back to 1947 suggest a consistent strategy by Pakistan's military and intelligence apparatus, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), of using terrorism as a state policy against India.
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'The elimination of terrorists does not imply the neutralisation of terrorism. That terrorist ecosystem continues to thrive in Kashmir.'
'Today, Shah Rukh is sitting so high up that it will have to be something really spectacular for him to jump up and say, "Hey, yes, let's make this film!".'
Terror struck Pune on Saturday night as a powerful bomb ripped apart a popular bakery near a Jewish prayer house, killing nine people, including five women and a foreigner, and injuring 32 others, in the first major attack since the 26/11 carnage. The improvised explosive device, kept in an unattended packet outside the kitchen of the German bakery, exploded at approximately 7.30 pm, when a waiter attempted to open it.
A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande warned that it would impose costs on the authorities for denying parole only on the ground that Baig had been convicted of terror charges.
Mirza Himayat Baig, the lone convicted accused in the German Bakery blast case, was on Thursday sentenced to death by a Pune sessions court.
"We have the CCTV footages. We have got some vital information from it," Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh told reporters in Pune. "We received the forensic report last night. It has been established that the presence of RDX, ammonium nitrate and petroleum hydrocarbon oil in it," the Commissioner said. The use of RDX and that too in such a large quantity is an indication that there has been a lot of planning involved in this attack.
The CCTV footage shows that one of the men, who had planted the bomb, was conversing over phone. However, investigators point out that it is too early to come to any conclusion as this fact will have to be cross checked with the waiter, who claimed to have seen the bombers.
The terror strike at the German bakery in Pune's Koregaon Park locality has rekindled concern for the safety of Israelis and Jews in the country, but community members have said that the bombing will not scare them away.
An Indian Mujahideen terrorist, suspected to be involved in the German Bakery blast of Pune in 2010, has been arrested from Kolkata, the police said.
Maharashtra police on Sunday said it has obtained the CCTV footage of the frontal area of the German bakery at the time of the blast, which killed nine persons, including two foreign nationals, and injured 60.
A curious stream of onlookers, including foreigners, thronged the area near the popular bakery in Pune that witnessed the first terror strike in the country since 26/11, even as a posse of security personnel maintained tight vigil.
The Delhi police claims Ejaz Sheikh handed over ammunition for the German Bakery blasts to Yasin Bhatkal. In reality, Shaikh never knew Bhatkal.
Lashkar-e-Tayiba operative David Coleman Headley on Wednesday told a United States court that he had conducted a surveillance of the German Bakery in Pune and identified Chabad houses in Delhi, Pushkar and Pune which could be bombed.
With one more person succumbing to injuries, the toll in the blast in the German Bakery in Pune has risen to 11, hospital sources said on Wednesday.
"The bakery was crowded when the blast took place at approximately 7.15 pm. The blast shattered the windowpanes of the houses in Yogi Housing Society, which is located across the street. Two shops adjacent to the bakery, a liquor store and a cafe also bore the brunt of the blast. Some of the bodies were thrown across the street due to the impact of the blast.
The government had intelligence inputs to indicate that Pune was vulnerable to terror attacks, based on which the state police issued detailed security guidelines last year to major commercial establishments, including the German Bakery.A blast in the popular bakery in the city on February 13 had claimed 17 lives.In a reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Ajay Maken said, "The suspected main targets in Pune were put under protection."
The jinx associated with number '13' seems to hold true for the country with four bomb blasts taking place on this date during the last three years.
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